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Celebrating staff who are building a caring future

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has held its first staff awards.

The ‘Building a caring future awards’ celebrated the commitment and dedication of staff who care for thousands of people every day across North Tyneside and Northumberland.

From almost 200 nominations, 11 awards were presented in a range of categories which represented the breadth of services provided by the Trust.

Northumbria Healthcare, which has 9,000 staff, manages hospital and community health services in North Tyneside and hospital, community health and adult social care services in Northumberland.

The sponsored awards ceremony took place earlier this month and was attended by staff from across the organisation.

Jim Mackey, chief executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, who presented the awards, said: “I would like to congratulate all the winners, the runners-up and everyone who was nominated for our first staff awards.

“It was great to see so many staff from across all areas of the trust being recognised for the work they do. I know the judging panel was very impressed by the breadth of work going on across the organisation and found it a really humbling experience to read the many amazing stories about our staff.

“We know the NHS is going through challenging times at the moment and we don’t always hear enough about the fantastic work everyone does every day benefiting our patients and the wider public.

“Our staff should all be very proud of the services we provide and I am delighted that we were able to celebrate our staff in this way.”

The first award celebrated Northumbria Healthcare’s volunteers – people who tirelessly and generously gave their time to services to patients and visitors. The winner was Maureen Bramman who volunteers in the stroke support unit on Ward 4 at Hexham General Hospital.

Chloe Charlton was named best apprentice for her work with elderly patients on Ward 3 at North Tyneside General Hospital.

The innovation award went to Michael Taylor who developed a picture food menu to help elderly patients, particularly those with dementia, who find it difficult to choose from a written menu. The menu, believed to be the first of its kind in England, has helped to improve nutrition and hydration.

The Trust-wide reducing harm team won the quality award. The initiative has involved a multi-disciplinary team looking at how harm rates can be reduced. The highly-successful approach has already won the team national recognition at the National Patient Safety Awards.

The winner of the celebrating equality and diversity went to Clare Hall, a specialist health visitor working with refugees and asylum seekers in North Tyneside for her work with partner agencies.

Tracy Scott, research assistant and patient, care participation and involvement lead for child health, was named ‘inspirational role model’ for work engaging with young people.

The palliative care domestics team won the essential services award for not only ensuring exceptional levels of cleanliness but also their interaction with patients nearing the end of life and their families.

The support team award went to the health records team which plays a crucial role in supporting the provision of care to patients – ensuring patients’ notes are where they need to be.

The partnership working award went to Joy Strachan for her work with the teenage pregnancy support team in North Tyneside – engaging and supporting young women who find it difficult to engage in mainstream services.

Ward 6 at North Tyneside General Hospital was named clinical services team of the year for providing a welcoming and caring environment for families and their dedication to providing high quality services.

The final award was chief executive Jim Mackey’s special ‘making a difference award’ which went to Helen Maughan, modern matron at Hexham General Hospital who has devoted her working life to caring for the people of Tynedale.

Helen trained at Hexham General Hospital and throughout her career has continued to develop her nursing skills has become a well-respected matron and the face of the hospital in Hexham.

She is an outstanding role model for young nurses joining the profession and has been instrumental in the development of senior nurses that resulted in them becoming the Trust’s first nurse practitioners.

A colleague has described her as “trustworthy, honest, reliable and a caring and compassionate person”.